Applying personalized medicine to musculoskeletal disease

Osteoarthritis is an incurable and debilitating joint disease that affects nearly 50 million Americans. From analyzing a patient’s genomic and biomarker profile, Dr. Prakash Jayabalan develops personalized rehabilitation programs that are most likely to ease pain and aid in recovery. View Halo Profile >>

Tell us about your research…

My lab uses biomarker analyses to develop efficacious exercise regimens for individuals with musculoskeletal injury and disease.  We are currently developing a novel cartilage stress test for the early assessment of knee osteoarthritis and are also investigating how an individual’s biomarker profile impacts his or her response to non-operative treatment.

My lab uses biomarker analyses to develop efficacious exercise regimens for individuals with musculoskeletal injury and disease. 

Can you explain this to a non-scientist?

We are using an individual’s own blood-based biomarker response to a specific walking regimen to develop an exercise regimen tailored to the biology of his or her knee osteoarthritis. Using this information, we can also potentially detect the disease earlier and predict a person’s response to treatment.

We are using an individual’s own blood-based biomarker response to a specific walking regimen to develop an exercise regimen tailored to the biology of his or her knee osteoarthritis.

How could it someday impact patient lives?

My research focuses on developing a personalized medicine approach to knee osteoarthritis in which we use a patient’s own biological profile from his or her blood to develop an appropriate patient-specific exercise program. This will optimize the performance, function and recovery of patients with musculoskeletal disease.

In addition to his role at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Dr. Jayabalan is also an Assistant Professor at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine.

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